This year’s Deloitte Connected Small Business report has highlighted the increasing implementation of digital strategies by Australian SMB’s.

Since 2013, there has been a fifty percent increase in the number of businesses boasting an advanced level of digital engagement through activities like online advertising and search engine optimisation.

It’s unsurprising that a greater level of digital engagement pays off. Revenue growth, innovation and increased employment are some of the key benefits.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

SMB’s at an advanced level of digital engagement were one-and-half times more likely to have experienced revenue growth over the previous twelve months compared to those with only basic engagement

SMB’s with an advanced level of digital engagement are more than fourteen times more likely to display innovation in new products or services

SMB’s with an advanced level of digital engagement are more than eight times more likely to experience employment growth

Over half of Australian SMB’s are still operating at a basic to intermediate level of digital engagement, with only nine percent at an advanced level

Our CEO, Clay Cook, has shared his views on the report with Campaign Brief, including rallying the industry as a whole to come together to break down the misgivings and barriers that are preventing businesses from increasing their adoption.

Google’s hotly anticipated Penguin ranking update has finally been released. It’s been a long wait for SEO agencies and website owners.

In late September, Penguin 4.0 was launched by Google, however it’s unlike any other previous Penguin update. Through this release, Penguin now operates in real-time and as part of Google’s core search algorithm. This means that ranking adjustments will now occur as Google re-crawls the web and existing penalties will be lifted much sooner. However, instead of demoting a website, Penguin 4.0 now devalues the link spam so that it is excluded from a website’s ranking calculation.

Our team have kept a keen eye on the “recovery” component of the update. We’re happy to report we’ve seen some strong improvements for clients who have engaged us to help fix penalties from previous SEO activities.

Online ad spend grew by 29.7 per cent to $6.8 billion in the year to June 30 this year making it the fastest growth of Australia’s online advertising market for five years.

The rapid rise of advertising on smartphones and tablets is the main driver.

Double digit growth was achieved by all online advertising segments, but general display advertising was the big winner.

Increasing 43.3 per cent to $2.5 billion making it the highest year-on-year growth since the inception of the report 13-years-ago.

Our CEO, Clay Cook, admits he was surprised by this increase as our AdWords team has noticed the popularity of display advertising dissipate in recent years. However, when you take into account that the this includes video advertising, which grew 55 per cent, it’s easier to understand the growth.

At current growth trajectories, display advertising should take over from search as the largest area of spend in the second half of 2017.

The industry leading the way in online advertising spend is real estate which increased its category share to 13.2 per cent from 10.8 per cent the previous year. However, the automotive industry is still the largest online advertiser.

Both of these industries are very competitive. The real estate agency industry is growing by around 3.4 per cent per year, so that increased competition is putting more pressure on agencies to spend on advertising to be seen online.

Clay suggests that the key for advertisers is to find the right balance to achieve effective advertising for their spend.

The best advertisers know how to use content, technology and data to help achieve their marketing goals efficiently, instead of just throwing money at it and hoping for the best.

In 2015, Australian digital advertising spend increased 25% over the previous year and cracked $6 billion.

What makes this news such a milestone is the fact that it’s the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the industry.

It’s news that doesn’t surprise our CEO, Clay.

This news solidifies the fact that advertisers have ‘seen the light’ and are investing more heavily in digital as it provides more opportunities to reach consumers. From mobile, to video and display advertising, digital is one of the few forms of advertising that continues to innovate and consistently deliver measurable results.

He has shared this thoughts on the news and where digital is heading with Campaign Brief.

After forcing webmasters to wait 10 months, Google has confirmed that a new ranking algorithm update has been released this week.

Panda 4.2 brings good news for anyone who was penalised by the previous update. If you took the right action to fix your mistakes, then you should notice a positive change in your organic ranking.

However, it could be a while before you notice this.

In the past, when Google has released an algorithm update, its impact has been immediate and widespread. However, this release is different. It’s being rolled out so slowly that webmasters are unlikely to notice any sudden impact to their website’s rankings.

Google’s lips are sealed as to why they have taken the “go slowly” method, but they can confirm that it will likely impact around 2%–3% of English language queries worldwide.

Our CEO, Clay Cook, makes a point that if you’ve forgotten to make changes to your website, then it’s a little too late. “Despite this update being a “slower” release than normal, there is no point rushing any sudden changes to your website. They will not be picked up by Panda 4.2.”

Being proactive instead of reactive is always a good approach. “It’s still early days, but we’ve noticed very little impact to our clients website rankings from this update and we don’t really expect to. This is because our approach to SEO is to be proactive. If webmasters continually update their content as part of their overall SEO strategy, then their website is less likely to feel the wrath of Google.”

If you do find you’re website has been negatively impacted by the update this time round, then use it as a timely reminder to implement the required changes to increase your content quality. You just never know when Panda 4.3 may arrive…